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Disease Note Blossom Blight of Litchi in Taiwan Caused by Peronophythora litchi. P. J. Ann, Chia-yi Agricultural Experiment Station, Chia-yi, Taiwan,. W. H. KO, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Hawaii, Beaumont Agricultural Research Center, Hilo 96720. Plant Dis. 68:826. Accepted for publication 13 June 1984. Copyright 1984 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-68-826d. After an unusually prolonged drizzle in the spring of 1983 in central and southern Taiwan, a previously unreported blossom blight of litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) caused considerable reduction in yield. Diseased flowers turned brown and were covered with whitish masses of sporangiophores and sporangia indistinguishable from those of Peronophythora litchii Chen ex KO et al, the causal organism of litchi fruit rot. P. litchii was consistently isolated from diseased flowers after surface sterilization with 1% NaC10. Symptoms similar to those occurring in nature appeared 5 days after flowers of 3-yr-old litchi plants were inoculated with P. litchii sporangia and incubated in a mist chamber. P. litchii was reisolated from all experimentally infected flowers. |